A Ukraine Miscellany XII: Thank You USA (II)

The US for its part is returning to the George Bush posture of post 9/11 – you're either with us or against us. In other words if you're not on board with Washington's global design, you're being relegated to the enemy column. And yet the Bush threat of 2001 carried more weight than it does under Biden in 2022. This is not because Biden is weak per se, but rather he presides over a nation that is undergoing social disintegration and even while it flexes its international muscle – domestically it faces deep systemic problems and is even now living under the shadow of civil conflict. And as things presently stand it looks like there's a good chance Trump could be president again in a couple of years which will effectively dash America's standing on the world stage.

One wonders if in the coming days there won't be attempts to manage the conflict and rein in Zelenskiy. A long-term low-grade war is still in Washington's interest if such a thing remains possible. The talk of Ukraine entering NATO can be put on the backburner and in the meantime they can keep feeding the dissent within Russia itself.  The dead Ukrainians mean nothing to Washington and the more dramatic the pictures – the better. The weapons industry can continue to feed off the conflict and while Putin may hang on for awhile, he has been rendered effectively impotent on the geopolitical stage.

But any such scenario can only hold for so long. Everything keeps changing. Barely a month goes by without some other factor coming into play. It's fascinating but morbidly so and tragic on so many levels.

Marwan Bishara has written a helpful piece at Al Jazeera outlining Putin's five fatal mistakes but he also doesn't hold back when criticising the United States in helping to set the stage for the invasion or what some might call an Afghanistan-style trap. Putin made some major miscalculations and thus laid himself wide open to US machinations. They out-Byzantined the Russian leader it would seem.

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/10/6/putins-five-arrogant-mistakes

Bishara also makes the critical point that Putin has undermined his own narrative and whatever moral standing he still possessed. He was right to criticize the aggression, hypocrisy, and immorality of the Western imperial complex and yet by invading Ukraine he is now guilty of terrible crimes and has forever destroyed his ability to project that narrative.

For the United States this is but another phase in the forever wars that it launched in 2001 – wars necessary for the maintenance of empire. It's a course other powers have chosen in history, or it could be argued a course that some powers have been compelled to follow. It always leads to massive death and destruction and ultimately the collapse of the instigating power. The American quest for world domination may end in nuclear destruction and millions of deaths but its apologists and propagandists will never accept the responsibility that is due.

Bishara is actually quite restrained in his indictment of Western hypocrisy over aggressive war, war crimes, violations of international law, meddling and proxy conflicts, and its supposed commitment to liberal values even while it overthrows democratic governments, and backs dictators and authoritarian regimes around the world. The hypocrisy of the West stinks to high heaven and yet its media machine is so powerful and so utterly corrupt that it has been able to pull off the Ukraine narrative and cover up its tracks across the globe. This is true even with regard to its actions in Ukraine over the past twenty years and the fascistic filth and corruption that surround Zelenskiy and his regime. Putin has slain his thousands to be sure, but the United States is responsible for millions of deaths. This must never be forgotten.

Bishara also correctly identifies the analogy between the Soviet war in Afghanistan and these events in Ukraine. The Afghan War helped to accelerate the collapse of the USSR and the Ukraine debacle will likely bring down Putin and perhaps lead to the fragmentation of the Russian Federation. That is the hope in Washington and among the NATO chiefs. And yet as Bishara rightly suggests – this time the outcome could be messier.

This contextualisation is essential to understanding these events. Once again, while the Right lambasts the Biden Administration he (or more likely his team) has actually demonstrated a kind of robust resolve and ingenuity. In a short time they reversed much of the damage done by Trump and yet as the many dissensions and tensions indicate – it's not all going to plan and they're in a race to stay ahead of the domestic fires. Europe is on board but not everyone has fully embraced the Atlanticist plan. America is exerting its power through the global financial infrastructure but it no longer wields the power and influence it once did. This too is part of the larger crisis and is playing a part in creating the very dangerous conditions of the present moment.

Is Biden simply a gaffe machine when it comes to his comments about Taiwan or the threat of nuclear war vis-à-vis Ukraine? I'm not so sure. I think ideas are carefully floated – it's a kind of strategy at work. The gaffe angle is a means of explaining away or softening what is being said. The ground is being prepared and yet what we're seeing at present is disconcerting to say the least. The US Empire is in a moment of great crisis and within just a generation it has plummeted from its zenith of global power to a crisis point of near implosion. War is a way out – or at least many of the praetorians think so. It has been clear for some years that Washington has been in a state of preparation for a series of large wars with Russia and China. It may be that the moment has come and some of the madmen are contemplating the use of nuclear weapons. NATO (and thus Washington) is already at war with Russia and it seems the hope is to sometime soon eliminate Moscow from consideration. That will be a sure signal to the likes of Iran and China that they're next.

And yet Washington is also in a race against its own cancer that's eating it up from the inside. War again is viewed as a means of countering this as all the destructive internal energy is focused outward against the enemy. It's a cynical, evil, and risky venture to be sure but these are not men – these are maniacal beings, creatures caught in a demonic grip.